


until they see us fall (let's run)

by MoreHeartLessAttack



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Drabble, Established Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hurt Lance (Voltron), Hurt/Comfort, Langst, M/M, Near Death Experiences, Non-Graphic Violence, Oneshot, Protective Keith (Voltron), Songfic, Worried Keith (Voltron), kangst, klance, klangst, rated for language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-27
Updated: 2018-09-27
Packaged: 2019-07-18 02:47:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16109195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoreHeartLessAttack/pseuds/MoreHeartLessAttack
Summary: “Come on, Lance. Keep moving your feet.”Keith pushed down the bile rising in his throat, trying not to actually look at Lance’s feet – because looking down at his feet also meant looking down at the gruesome, dripping wound clawed into Lance’s side.





	until they see us fall (let's run)

* * *

  _Cause this is not enough_

_And I won’t wait for them to cut me up_

_So give me all you’ve got_

_They’ll never stop until they see us fall_

_So let’s run_

 

“ _ **Run” - Bring Me the Horizon**_

* * *

“Come on, Lance. Keep moving your feet.”

Keith pushed down the bile rising in his throat, trying not to actually _look_ at Lance’s feet – because looking down at his feet also meant looking down at the gruesome, dripping wound clawed into Lance’s side...the blood from which splattered said armored feet.

It was a messy scene all around. Keith did not need to add his own vomit to the mix.

“’M trying,” Lance mumbled hoarsely. Keith knew that to be truth by the way he snapped his eyelids open and caught himself with a gasp each time he nearly face-planted over a tree root. His footwork was, understandably, shoddy at best. Lance was really stumbling more than walking at that point; Keith’s arm secured around his waist was likely the only thing keeping him upright.

“I know, it’s okay, I know,” Keith soothed.

Or at least, he meant it to be soothing. But his breath was fast and harsh, and his legs were beginning to ache, so the words came out more like a dismissal. You never realize how important somebody being slightly taller and broader than you is until you have to drag them through an alien forest away from the pack of rabid animal predators that almost did you both in.

God, their lives were _so_ fucked up.

“Just...keep going,” Keith said weakly, because what else could they actually do? “You’re doing good. Keep moving.”

“Oh," Lance breathed. “Okay.”

Was there a low growling in the distance again, or was he imagining it, panic plugging a memory of the sound into the present? It was so hard to tell.

Keith’s gut twisted with another bout of nausea and ice-cold water pumped through his veins as it struck him that they’d been trailing Lance’s blood behind them this entire trek. For predators, the scent alone was a surefire lead right to the wounded prey.

The distant growling was probably all too real, then.

“There,” Lance gasped, and for one horrible moment Keith feared he’d spotted one of the creatures. “The – tree. Hollow. Go, there.”

Keith followed his gaze and caught on immediately. A tree with a hollow they could fit into. And, more importantly, that the gigantic animals _couldn’t_ fit into. He veered them in its direction, tightening his grip on Lance’s waist when the other paladin wobbled precariously.

Getting Lance into the savior of a hollow was a challenge in and of itself.

He cried out in pain, breath coming in sharp pants, when Keith tried to bring him down to the forest floor.

“I can’t do this part for you,” Keith hissed urgently, eyes flitting around the foliage for signs of the glowing purple ‘death cats,’ as Lance had jokingly called them mere seconds before one nearly mauled him to death. “You have to crawl in. I know, I’m _sorry_ , but you have to.”

Lance’s glazed eyes locked onto Keith’s for the first time since they’d reached the planet’s surface. Keith’s heart squeezed painfully.

“You owe me,” Lance choked out, then outright _screamed_ as he forced himself out of Keith’s grip and dropped to his knees.

He continued to wheeze, sob, and yell as he dragged himself into the hollow. Keith clenched his hands into white-knuckled fists to keep them from shaking.

When he finally followed Lance into their makeshift shelter, crawling over the same path, droplets of blood stained the white of his armor. Not that he could really complain. Lance’s armor bore significantly worse stains, and there was a giant, gaping hole in the metal. Coran was going to be pissed.

You know. If they ever actually saw him again.

Lance was practically hyperventilating against the farthest wall of the hollow. Keith ran gentle hands over the other teenager’s torso, mindful of the wound there.

“Come here,” Keith whispered, fingers locking into Lance’s hair and gently pulling him to rest on his shoulder. “Come here, I’ve got you. We’re fine now. I’ve got you.”

Lance’s trembling hands gripped Keith’s biceps weakly. “Don’t say...we’re fine. You – God, shit _ow_ – you don’t know that.”

Keith allowed the conversation to lapse into silence, pained breath filling the gaps. How could he deny that? It was entirely true. They could have another sixty years to live or another sixty seconds, and Keith was none the wiser.

“Thought Hunk was making us dinner,” he finally said into Lance’s sweat-soaked hair. “Date night. Remember? That’s tonight. You can’t just cancel a date at the last minute, Lance, that’s _rude_.”

Lance coughed out something resembling a laugh into the junction of Keith’s neck and jawline.

“Sorry,” he murmured. His words were sounding more and more like garbled, slurred nonsense with each passing minute. “Should try to be more...timely – with my mortal injuries – next time.”

“Yeah.” Keith squeezed his eyes shut, his own grip on Lance tightening even as Lance fell more slack against him, and said a silent prayer to whatever God was listening. “Yeah, you should. Love you, though.”

“Love – you, too.”

Sixty seconds or sixty years – either way, Keith knew one thing for sure. They would go together. Any other outcome was unacceptable.

“You did good. You ran. Thank you,” Keith whispered even as he felt Lance lose consciousness, his full body weight going limp against Keith’s chest. The other paladins were surely already on their way. There was, of course, no guarantee rescue would find them before death did. But it was a possibility.

Keith held Lance’s clammy hand in his own, settled back into the hollow, and waited.


End file.
